Control of polymer gel surface pattern formation and its three dimensional measurement method

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates control over the global structure of surface patterns formed during gelation and introduces a 3D measurement system to analyze these patterns, focusing on external temperature field effects.

Contribution

It presents a novel 3D measurement method for gel surface patterns and investigates pattern controllability via external temperature fields.

Findings

Global pattern structure can be controlled.

Characteristic length scales are not controllable.

Developed a 3D measurement system for surface deformation analysis.

Abstract

We report the controllability of a gelation surface pattern formation. Recently, we have found and studied a novel kind of pattern formation that occurs during a radical polymerization (gelation) process. The pattern formation is observed in an open top boundary of quasi two dimensional gelation. In previous studies, we have used two dimensional photo based image processing to analyze the patterns. However, the actual pattern is a three dimensional surface deformation. Thus we develop a three dimensional measurement system using a line laser displacement sensor and an automatic x-stage. Patterns measured by the system are analyzed and discussed by means of pattern controllability. In particular, we focus on the possibility of the pattern control using an external temperature field. As a result, we reveal that the global structure can be controlled, whereas the characteristic length scales (wavelength and amplitude) are not controllable.